Just look at all the fantastic stuff that people provide for free on the internet. It is simultaneously amazing that we are willing to pay anything for software at all, and yet that so few people actually bother to use open source software. Why is that? Is it because we don't trust a technology unless it we have to pay for it, that 'no pain, no gain' mentality? Or is it because people don't know what open source is, or how to exploit it? This isn't a problem unique to the wide-format printing sector, but it is a problem many businesses share.

Open source software is software that you can download for free and use to your heart's content without ever having to pay for it. You are probably already using one of the many, many open source tools available. They include such things as the VLC media player, which is a free player for video and DVD running under Windows, or the BBC's iPlayer application for UK citizens who want to download BBC broadcasts after they have been aired. An especially impressive example of open source software is drupal, which is at the heart of all sorts of websites and applications. Drupal is a content management platform that was built by a community of hundreds of thousands of people from all over the world. The community supports drupal's evolution and provides support for its members for ideas, problem solving and so on.

This idea of software that can be developed by a community without people having to pay anything for the privilege is at the heart of the open source software concept. And it is a brilliant way to exploit the online resources and online communities. For any problem you have developing and managing, say, for example, your website's content, you can be pretty sure someone out there has already solved the problem and will be willing to help you out.

Open source is an important future for software development. HP has recently announced that it is to make its WebOS technology, a mobile operating system designed for mobile and cloud computing, open source. WebOS will benefit from a large development base to 'to advance a new generation of applications and devices' according to HP chief executive Meg Whitman.

Any steps that make mobile and cloud based applications easier to user and more sophisticated are to be welcomed. Customers and developers are invited to comment and provide suggestions for the future of WebOS. Sign and display makers should be pleased about this announcement, and should exploit the opportunity to get their voices heard from the outset.